[saket77]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

Yikes! I thought front loads didn't have this problem, but I was mistaken, I see. Like a telecom tower, these things seem to need a concrete base.

This looks like a suspension + rubber beading problem which dampens the vibrations. If you happen to open the top cover of a front loader, you will notice 2 large springs holding the drum, acting like a vibration dampener/ suspension system. Plus, the rubber beading near the drum further helps. If these 2 go bad, the machine will dance without tunes.

[DWind]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

@DWind; Side by side looks great but the useful capacity is minimal. So be careful. My son has one and we are regretting it (came as part of the flat).

We looked at some refrigerators last weekend. We really liked the Panasonic ones Frost Free (Normal 2 doors). Any idea how the Service is and how the reliability of these over Korean ones?
I know all of them have Inverters but would need your advice on the Compressor coils. I am told by sales person that all of them now have aluminium coils and only Whirlpool still supplies Copper ones which are reliable. So what difference do they make? Should I be going for ones with Copper coils only? Please let me know

[fine69]

I need to buy a storage water geyser and wanted to know the brands that I should be looking at. I currently live in a rented accommodation with my wife and the bathroom is pretty small. I had looked at some flat geysers and they made sense space wise.

We'd be moving into our own house in another 3-4 years if it helps with the recommendations.

Cost-wise would it make sense to spend on a 5 star geyser. I mean would I be able to break even the extra purchase cost with the electricity bill saving in about 3 years?

[thenomad]

Originally Posted by fine69

I need to buy a storage water geyser and wanted to know the brands that I should be looking at. I currently live in a rented accommodation with my wife and the bathroom is pretty small. I had looked at some flat geysers and they made sense space wise.

We'd be moving into our own house in another 3-4 years if it helps with the recommendations.

Cost-wise would it make sense to spend on a 5 star geyser. I mean would I be able to break even the extra purchase cost with the electricity bill saving in about 3 years?

My advise would be
1. Is the water quality good? If bad, better to opt for a immersion heater, provided no kids. Dealing with salt deposits in geysers is not easy.
2. You have make provision for a 15A circuit where you are installing the geyser if not available already.
3. Look for a geyser capacity with 15 litres that way you don't spend lot of time heating up water that is not used.
4. Go for a 5 star model only if you plan to run the equipment over longer duration to realize cost savings on investment.

I did a lot of research and went for a local assembled geyser that I got for Rs 5000 that is made of all copper internals and good parts. Its been doing its duty well for the last 10 years with frequent maintenance.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Front loaders have taken spin speeds way up, even in excess of 1,000RPM. When I told people in the office, over fifteen years ago, that my new Bosch machine span at 1200, they genuinely didn't believe me!

If you want to see it taken to unrealistic just-for-show extremes, watch what happens when a washing machine tries to spin-dry a brick.

It is very important to adjust the feet on a front loader so that all four are firmly on the ground, and so that the machine is level, side to side and front to back. It has to be done with a spirit level; by-eye will not do. Without doing this, the best of machines can become a demolition tool. I was told by a washing engineer once, in London, that he had see the wooden units in a fitted kitchen destroyed by a shaking, dancing washing machine.

I believe that my LG problem occurs in some early examples of the model, and there seems to be nothing that can be done. An engineer told me I was overloading it: I told him that I have been using washing machines since before he was born. No, he did not know to use a spirit level.

[Chetan_Rao]

We have a 15 year old perfectly functional IFB front-loader at my parents' place, and that thing has an actual concrete block inside the back panel to balance the spinner drum! The machine ain't silent by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a whine rather than a rumble and we've installed it in a spare bathroom so the noise doesn't really bother anyone. Balancing a front-loader's feet is an art not to be ridiculed, the best technicians have bitten the dusty stuff.

What makes us keep it is the fact we've never experienced washing of the same quality from any of the other machines we've used. My mom swears by it even though it needs twice-annnual descaling (the water's fault, really) and the AMC is rather expensive.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by thenomad

My advise would be...

Thanks for your inputs. Though I don't have a kid but knowing my wife immersion heater is out of the picture. Its too much of a hassle and I don't perceive it to be very safe.

I don't have a 15A circuit so I defnitely need to get that installed in the bathroom.

I would most likely be ordering it through amazon or paytm and currently see Crompton Greaves, Racold and Bajaj as the most common brands. Any thoughts around which brand to steer clear of?

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by fine69

I would most likely be ordering it through amazon or paytm and currently see Crompton Greaves, Racold and Bajaj as the most common brands.

I would recommend Racold. We have some 35+ year old Racolds in our house and they are ageless. When I was purchasing one for a different rental home of ours, I was checking for Racold 3 years back but they seemed to have some production issues and I had settled on Bajaj then. But I see Racold back in the markets now. Their EER was also the highest as per the government reports of 3 years ago...please check that as well for current recommendations.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by fine69

I need to buy a storage water geyser and wanted to know the brands that I should be looking at.

Racold and AO Smith are good brands. Have been using Racold (25 ltrs, 5 star rated) for 3 years in moderate to high hard water and never have faced any problems with the geyser. AO smith, I believe is another good brand but no personal experiences with it.

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

We have a 15 year old perfectly functional IFB front-loader at my parents' place, and that thing has an actual concrete block inside the back panel to balance the spinner drum! The machine ain't silent by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a whine rather than a rumble and we've installed it in a spare bathroom so the noise doesn't really bother anyone. Balancing a front-loader's feet is an art not to be ridiculed, the best technicians have bitten the dusty stuff.

What makes us keep it is the fact we've never experienced washing of the same quality from any of the other machines we've used. My mom swears by it even though it needs twice-annnual descaling (the water's fault, really) and the AMC is rather expensive.

+1 to it. We have a 1998 IFB machine which has a concrete block inside! I balanced it myself without spirit level check, still no such tantrums. The machine is used frequently and I am more than satisfied with the machine. Still, it is far from giving up by the way it performs.

Regards,
Saket.

[khoj]

Compressor coils!!the guy means the heat exchanger and these have been made from aluminium for donkeys years now across brands. Why would Whirlpool go out of the way to give the more expensive Copper?

Originally Posted by DWind

I know all of them have Inverters but would need your advice on the Compressor coils. I am told by sales person that all of them now have aluminium coils and only Whirlpool still supplies Copper ones which are reliable. So what difference do they make? Should I be going for ones with Copper coils only? Please let me know

For Geysers at this point in time buy A.O.Smith. From 5L to 200 litres, these are sold through their own network as well as via Jaquar channels. They have models that can be located in remote locations as long as you can connect the inlet and supply pipes. Visit their website for more info.

Originally Posted by fine69

I need to buy a storage water geyser and wanted to know the brands that I should be looking at. I currently live in a rented accommodation with my wife and the bathroom is pretty small. I had looked at some flat geysers and they made sense space wise.

We'd be moving into our own house in another 3-4 years if it helps with the recommendations.

Cost-wise would it make sense to spend on a 5 star geyser. I mean would I be able to break even the extra purchase cost with the electricity bill saving in about 3 years?

[fine69]

Originally Posted by khoj

For Geysers at this point in time buy A.O.Smith.

Any specific reason apart from their installation/service process? Their warranty is at 6 months compared to Racold's which starts at 2 years.

I went through all models of Racold and below are my observations:

The CDR model gives everything that I could possible ask from a geyser i.e. it heats up water and that's pretty much all I need.

The Altro 2 has an additional Smart Mixer which prevents the cold water from entering suddenly so hot water is available for a longer time. The heating element is also titanium enamelled (whatever this means) thus giving me a warranty of 3 years on the heating element.

The Eterno 2 additionally has some Smart Bath Logic (which I don't I'll be using at all) and everything else is same as of Altro 2. Warranty is extended to 4 years for heating element and 7 years for inner tank.

Lastly Eterno dg has a timer with a remote control, also gives me option of selecting whether I wish to choose 1, 2 or 3 kW heating element for heating up the water (going back to my science class since the energy consumption is going to be the same I'm not sure whether this makes any sense).

Price-wise (based on paytm)
CDR (15L) - 7k
Altro 2 (15L) - 7.8k
CDR (25L) - 7.9k (I get a bigger geyser this way)
Altro 2 (25L) - 9k (again, bigger capacity)
Eterno 2 (15L) - 9.1k
Eterno Dg (15L) - 10k
Eterno 2 (25L) - 10.1k
Eterno Dg (25L) - 10.8k

Altro 2 (25L) at 9k (of course there's going to be some cashback) is looking like the one I should purchase unless Eterno 2 (25L)'s additional warranty is worth the extra 1k.

Hope I'm being too fussy about this rather simple purchase decision

EDIT: I think I'm going to rule out the 15L capacity simply because there are times when we'd need more hot water and 15L is simply not going to be enough.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by fine69

Lastly Eterno dg has a timer with a remote control, also gives me option of selecting whether I wish to choose 1, 2 or 3 kW heating element for heating up the water (going back to my science class since the energy consumption is going to be the same I'm not sure whether this makes any sense).

I would go with the timer model. My kids and even my wife leaves the geyser on very frequently and the energy bill savings will cover the additional 1-2k in no time!
I suppose the 3kw will heat the water in quicker time, not sure though!

[khoj]

6 months! Seriously? you might have misread years for months. I was one of their earliest customers and got a 2 year unconditional warranty and they have only improved on the terms.

AOSmith Ajita G. Rajendra | A. O. Smith Corp..pdf

AOSMITH.pdf

Originally Posted by fine69

Any specific reason apart from their installation/service process? Their warranty is at 6 months compared to Racold's which starts at 2 years.

[Ace F355]

Originally Posted by fine69

Racold.

Was in same boat as yours last week and bought myself 2 Crompton Greaves geysers in 15 lts capacity for both bathrooms at my place. Got these at a price INR 4600 each in Gurgaon. 4 stars rating and 2KWa heating element. Absolutely happy with purchase as far as initial impression goes. The geyser takes 15 mins to heat water and I am told they are really resistant to hard water. Warranty of 1 year on product as a whole and 5 years on heating element. Found CG to be really VFM if it helps you.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by khoj

6 months! Seriously? you might have misread years for months. I was one of their earliest customers and got a 2 year unconditional warranty and they have only improved on the terms.

You are right but paytm still shows incorrect warranty duration for AO Smith models i.e. 6 months.

Please help me narrow down the decision between AO Smith and Racold 25L models:
AO Smith SAS (25L) - 10.2k
AO Smith SDS (25L) - 11k
Raycold Eterno2 (25L) - 10.1k
Raycold Eterno Dg (25L) - 10.8k

Now AO Smith looks expensive w.r.t. the features it provides whereas Raycold Eterno Dg is one of their top models with every possible feature one can ask for in a geyser i.e. timer, remote control, different heating element selection etc. Their warranty is same 2+4+7 years.

AO Smith uses glass coated heating element while Racold uses titanium enamelled.

I'm a little inclined towards Racold for the extra electronics I get along with it but then the extra electronics are also my reason to worry in case they go kaput. A mechanical control with less tweaking ability is probably going to last longer.

What are you guys' thoughts?